SK Broadband Deploys TANDBERG Television IPTV Head End in Korea

SK Broadband, a Seoul-based Korean telecommunications company, has selected TANDBERG Television IPTV (News - Alert) head end to introduce linear broadcast television services to its Korea customers in 2009.

 

SK Broadband, previously Hanaro Telecom (News - Alert), claims to be the second largest broadband service provider in Korea, offering internet data, local call, long-distance call, international voice call services and TV-portal services with 3.66 million broadband subscribers, 1.86 million voice subscribers and 540 Thousands TV-portal subscribers.

 

SK intends to expand its business from voice service into multimedia telecommunication services based on its high-quality network to preoccupy future market. Company plans to introduce 30 standard-definition and 10 HD channels to complement its existing services.

 

HS Kim at SK Broadband, said: “Broadcast television is a significant new service for SK Broadband and will improve the IPTV experience and help us grow our business. We want to provide a feel-good factor for consumers watching our services and therefore set very high expectations for picture quality as well as bandwidth usage. TANDBERG Television (News - Alert) has demonstrated its leadership in MPEG-4 AVC HD and SD compression and we are pleased to work with them on this exciting project.”

 

As per the deal, TANDBERG Television, part of the Ericsson (News - Alert) Group, will supply TANDBERG EN8030 MPEG-4 AVC SD encoders, EN8090 MPEG-4 AVC HD encoders, iPlex for IP multiplexing and RX1290 SD/HD Integrated Receiver Decoders to SK Broadband.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Dario Choi, vice president and general manager of TANDBERG Television Asia Pacific said that the addition of broadcast television, including popular terrestrial channels, is a significant event for the Korean IPTV market and the whole media industry in the country.

 

 “SK Broadband has demonstrated that it is possible to build a popular and successful IPTV service using on-demand content and subscribers can now look forward to the highest quality broadcast TV. We are delighted to provide the head end for this landmark project after a vigorous selection process.”

 

TANDBERG says that its iPlex platform redefines the economics of HD transmission and provides the multi-format video processing platform with major improvements in picture quality, offering crisp, vibrant video at extremely low bit-rates and has even won numerous technology industry awards.

 

TANDBERG Television has recently awarded a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of its pioneering development and deployment of MPEG-4 AVC systems for HDTV.